1. Chair's report

Alexander and Kilmer started to use Gimlet to track off-desk reference statistics, with the same
template as the paper form. Kilmer librarians have raised the issue of creating uniform tags, which
may be addressed in the future. Gimlet contract will likely be extended and Tibor Purger (Director
of the Integrated Information Systems) needs to be informed in advance.

Kilmer reference team minutes were shared through rul_everyone, a practice Glynn welcomed.

Glynn, Niessen, and Springs attended the meeting of SCARLA (Student College, Academic, and Research
Library Association), a new campus organization of LIS students interested in working in academic
libraries. They also plan to meet with Virginia Papandrea who is in charge of the LIS field
experience course at SC&I on November 2. They will discuss the possibility of offering the field
experience to cohorts of students in SCARLA (and other interested students) as opposed to just
individual students.

2. AUL/RIS report - Fetzer

Fetzer welcomed Boyle and Wolff to the meeting. To prepare for the bond issue that may be placed on
the state ballot next November, she and Puniello have been going around the campus libraries and
inspecting buildings.

According to Targum, RUSA will conduct a survey in late October and Fetzer welcomed the news. A
similar survey was conducted two years ago and the biggest issue at the time was the library hours.
With the funding from the Vice President of Student Affairs, the library hours have been extended.
The previous survey revealed other issues potentially involving the libraries, such as printing
labs, study zones, and textbooks. However, the locker issue could not be responded to.

Targum also reported on the availability of Scarlet Apps. Abraham mentioned that Purger may send out
a memo about the appropriate use of the Apps.

3. Discussion of Counting Opinions comments by library - All

Alexander and Kilmer had sent out their summaries of Counting Opinions comments prior to the
meeting. Oswell reported that the main issues at Douglass were bathroom, parking, printing, and
lighting, but much has changed since the survey. Other issues at Douglass were hours, enforcement of
the rules about eating in the library, and noise.

For Alexander, Glynn reported that the hours of the graduate reading room was a main concern and he
will talk to Judy Gardner about possibly making Pane Room a graduate study room during extended
hours - the presence of expensive equipments in the room was noted. Some users found our collection
inadequate while others thought highly of it. Why is "Get it at R" so hard to use? Abraham explained
RUL can make some improvements while other issues are up to EBSCO. This issue will be brought to
USC. Do we want to extend the two-hour limit on guest computers for alumni and community borrowers?
This will be an agenda item at future meetings. The wireless issue in Alexander seemed to have been
resolved.

R. Gardner reported that at Chang, printing is an overwhelming issue and she was told to wait to see
what will happen at Art regarding printing.

Boyle encouraged people to go to Sakai and become familiar with Counting Opinions. In the survey,
wording might differ from one place to another, depending on the context (for example, both
"instructional sessions" and "instructional services" were used). What did the survey tell us? Boyle
said that in the opportunity index (calculated based on the combination of significance and
satisfaction), providing access to collections digitally ranked the highest. The previous
ethnographic study also confirmed that the biggest complaint was when the links to e-resources were
broken. To improve the survey, it was suggested to add a question to allow users to recommend
specific databases for purchasing.

Puniello added that cleanness of bathrooms is a major issue in the facilities area. Wi-fi has been
fixed. She meets every month with the campus facilities and keeps track of all the outstanding
library facility issues on a spreadsheet. Right now the number one outstanding issue is the lighting
in Douglass.

Glynn summarized the future actions: "Get it at R" issue will be taken up by USC; the two-hour limit
for alumni and community borrowers may be a future agenda item; he will discuss with Fetzer and
Abraham about printing at Art and Chang.

4. Discussions of Reference Statistics - Boyle

The group confirmed that all NBL reference desks are now using Gimlet and some libraries just
started to use it for off-desk stats.

Boyle is now responsible for reporting statistics to ARL and ACRL. A new product, LibPAS, will be
implemented (LibPAS is from the same company of Counting Opinions). The only thing RUL needs to
report nationally is reference statistics and we use the definition given by ARL. Similar
discussions had taken place at USC and a consensus was reached there about when to count a new
question from the same user (when there is a "radical departure").

The group then discussed at length about collecting off-desk statistics. It was decided that Abraham
will collect reference stats from Gimlet and report to Boyle (Abraham also needs to share the know-
how with other Unit Computing Specialists). For the current fiscal year, librarians need to enter
off-desk data into Gimlet from the period prior to its adoption; the numbers need to be entered by
month and library. What about reference transactions done by the regular staff (not students) at the
circulation desk? Boyle will speak to Judy Gardner and Fetzer about this.

The group reviewed the ARL definitions for instruction and reference that Boyle distributed. It was
noted that instruction includes formal bibliographic instruction program, class presentations,
orientation sessions, and tours. For reference, should librarians count questions referred from chat
reference or Ask a Librarian since they have been counted in chat and AAL statistics? People debated
this for a while and agreed that these questions should also be counted by the librarian answering
them, as well as the librarian referring the question.

Glynn reiterated the action items: he will ask Abraham to share the procedure of downloading stats
from Gimlet with PCWG; all the units will get the off-desk stats in Gimlet from the beginning of the
year; Boyle will talk to Fetzer and J. Gardner about collecting stats for reference done by
circulation desk staff.

5. Announcements

The next NBISG meeting will be on December 9. If important issues come up in the interim, the group
will try to meet at NBLF. Faculty forum on video use in curriculum will be held on Thursday (Oct.
20). Douglass now has give-away books on a shelf.